Cross posted from the Financial Times by permission of the authors. Michael Hudson and Jeffery Sommers: a distinguished professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee respectively, who have both advised members of Latvia’s government on alternatives to austerity. They are also contributors to the forthcoming book by... Read More

Financial Times Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, Iceland’s president, has created uproar with his decision to block legislation that would have repaid €3.9bn ($5.6bn) lost by British and Dutch savers in a failed Icelandic bank, triggering a referendum that the government is expected to lose. The initial response by credit rating agencies was to downgrade Icelandic bonds,... Read More

Financial Times an Iceland and Latvia pay the foreign debts run up by a fairly narrow layer of their population? The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings. Resentment is... Read More

Financial Times Challenging America will be the focus of meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Monday and Tuesday for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other leaders of the six-nation Shanghai Co-operation Organisation. The alliance comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajiki stan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia.... Read More

About Michael Hudson

Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of The Bubble and Beyond (2012), Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971).

ISLET engages in research regarding domestic and international finance, national income and balance-sheet accounting with regard to real estate, and the economic history of the ancient Near East.

Michael acts as an economic advisor to governments worldwide including Iceland, Latvia and China on finance and tax law.

AI will make manufacturing in the US cheaper than anywhere, so the US will be re-industrialised. It,s just the manufacturing jobs simply won’t exist anywhere on Earth.
And then who will buy what you manufacture? All other sectors will have AI'd, too. If in the end, no one works, there will b...

AI is not going to save the US. Who do you think is putting the most effort into Robotics and AI? It's China. Their national plans are programs to industrialise rapidly and are analogous to the US industralising as described in the article.

Curious as to the thoughts of those who know what they are talking about. Note: I am leaving out the rest of the US bullshit political, military, social, and economic factors.
As many have suggested, the US engages in a massive infrastructure overhaul. This means not just roads, but bridges,...

Given the ad hominems laced throughout your commentary, we can evaluate the strength of your (non) argument.
Odds-on betting is that your are some white-collar time-server in a sinecure far removed from the actual creation of wealth in a society, and you don't give a toss about people in less ...

Steel and aluminium are not raw materials; they are intermediate goods (the author is not talking about the mined metal, aluminium, but the forged product).
The country that does not forge its own steel/aluminium is a country that cannot defend itself.

Question: How could you tell if an Economist is a complete babbling idiot/obscuritanist who is really worthless? Answer: If his mouth is moving! Or better yet if he has a phd and published anything and works in Academia! and shows up on the Boobtube!
However with that joke attempted, Hud...

Well well well, it does appear that there may be more than one side to the story. Whaddya know?
What makes some people think they can post their one sided nonsense here and not get caught?
Thanks for your much more informative and reasonable comment on the subject, little of which I previou...

You are correct about Ford resisting unionization and using his "thugs" (the Ford "Service Department"--NOT Pinkerton) to maintain the "status quo". Still, people were willing to work for Ford Motor Company, as the jobs were good-paying and highly prized. It is interesting to note that today's ...

And over time we could develop working agreements with China (and other industrial countries) to discuss how inferior nations should be handled.
We have yet to figure out how to handle the morally and financially inferior nation, the one with the most colossal public debt ever known to man, and ...

Trump is clearly a proponent of the state.
We proles need not fantasize that the state exists to serve or protect us or our class. The only interest the state has in protecting us is the interest a dairy farmer has in his cows.
Why are governments formed?
“The primitive state is the creat...

Ford was known for treating his workers very well, but offended many with his controversial political views. Those who have run the Ford Foundation for the past few decades have very different attitudes. I would take stories of him terrorizing his employees with a grain of salt.

That's my point - how come steel protectionism is bad other than because Trump chose it?
The argument presented against steel protectionism does not hold water, given that the current great industrial powers of the world - Japan, Korea, China and Germany, are all steel-producing powerhouses. ...

Ford hired thugs and secret police to put the beat down on his workers. He was behind the times with his propaganda film work or he might have been able to avoid the violence he directed at his employees, breaking their will more peacefully the way the Nazis pulled their soldiers together for the...

There’s no reason whatsoever brown and black countries (India and Iran exempted) should be allowed to manage their own trade policies...
Latin America and the Caribbean clearly in the American sphere influence...
Lothrop Stoddard lives!
https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348801220l/...

Germany’s WWI timeline:
1. Germany declares war on Russia on August 1
2. Germany invades Luxembourg on August 2
3. Germany declares war on France on August 3
4. Germany invades Belgium on August 4
5. Great Britain declares war on Germany August 4
For a guy who seems to see so clearly on...

Here's another. I can't believe I neglected to mention it. Barnes is always tops.
HARRY ELMER BARNES
THE GENESIS
THE WORLD WAR
Available on line, free.
https://archive.org/details/genesisofworldwaOOharr

True enough, sir, but I suspect that if he does do some good, it'll just be a mere side effect from his efforts to line the wallets of the few, and little will tinkle (not even trickle) down to us peasants. If any crumbs do, our rulers will soon enough figure ways to snatch them from us.
I do ho...

Tell me how my comment about Germany was twisted.
It appears that you subscribe to the theory that Germany was the cause of the war. That's completely false.
Books have been written about it. A couple of good ones are Nock's "The Myth of a Guilty Nation," E.D Morel's masterful "Truth and th...

As far as the tariff goes, who knows?
you know how you can tell Jacque?
by who's screeching
when Goldman Sachs is screeching
and the Chamber of Commerce is screeching
and the Economist is screeching
and Kruggy! and the NYT are screeching
and Lindsey Graham and Chucky Schumer...

Don’t forget that the Germans had already agreed to give support to Austria-Hungary. Mutual defense assurances / pacts are not in the interests of the average middle and working class stiffs.
well, you just made my whole point vis-a-vis Germany being dragged into WWI
the German public should...